US imposes sanctions on Tibalaji Petrochem Pvt. Ltd over alleged Iran oil deal
Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
WASHINGTON, 1st Oct. WASHINGTON US Treasury Department on Thursday has imposed sanctions on Mumbai based Tibalaji Petrochem Pvt. Ltd over alleged Iran oil deal
India has abided by the sanctions imposed by the US on Tehran and its companies have refrained from importing petroleum products from Iran.
Treasury Department said that the company “purchased millions of dollars worth” petrochemical products, for “onward shipment to China”.
The company was one of eight that were hit in the latest round of sanctions.
Others are located in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and China, according to the US Treasury department
The sanctions imposed after India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar ended his visit to Washington where he met several top officials, including Antony Blinken of State, Lloyd Austin of Defence and Gail Raimondo of Commerce, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
State Department Deputy Spokesperson Dev Patel said they had nothing beyond what they had said at their news conference on companies doing business with Iran and imposing sanctions on them.
The alleged deals made by Tibalaji described itself on its website as a “growing petrochemical trading company”, do not appear to be for importing Iranian material to India, but rather for China.
Mostly the US sanctions were lifted after Iran reached an agreement with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany in 2015 to curtail its nuclear programme capable of weaponizing it.
They were re-imposed after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal and Tehran restarted its nuclear weapons-capable programme.
Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said “The US is committed to severely restricting Iran’s illicit oil and petrochemical sales,”
Tehran has taken a hard line on resuming deal and he warned that Washington will enforce the sanctions “so long as Iran refuses a mutual return to full implementation” of the deal.
Treasury Department said that under the sanctions, all the properties and interests in the US of the eight companies or those in which they have at least 50 per cent interest “must be blocked” and reported to its Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The department said that this applies also to any Americans who may have control over the assets of those companies and persons involved in certain transactions with them could also face sanctions or enforcement actions.
It added that Tibalaji bought “petrochemical products, including methanol and base oil, for onward shipment to China” through deals brokered by Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd. Network that had been sanctioned earlier.
Triliance is based in Hong Kong with branches in Iran, China and the UAE.
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